In putting together this morning’s story on all the sacks the New England Patriots have allowed this season, I went back through and timed every pass that Tom Brady has thrown. And since I was already doing that, I charted each pass by receiver to get a surface feel of how quickly each guy was getting open.
Now, the data culled can be taken several different ways. Guys with high numbers may just be the second or third read on a given play or running deeper routes. Other guys, like Julian Edelman, have lower numbers because many of his routes are screens.
While going through the tape, how quickly Aaron Dobson gets open was one thing that stood out, and I believe that’s reflected in how quickly Brady has gotten him the ball. I also noticed that Dobson doesn’t get jammed very often. While I wasn’t watching specifically for that, I only noticed him getting jammed on 15 of his targets.
But taking anything more than that away from these numbers is dangerous. As stated before, different things happen on different plays that can bump a number up or down. Context is important.
So without further ado, here is a look at how long, on average, it takes Brady to get his receivers the ball. Make of this what you will.
Danny Amendola: 2.34 seconds
Julian Edelman: 2.07 seconds
Shane Vereen: 1.91 seconds
Josh Boyce: 2.93 seconds
James Develin: 3.56 seconds
LeGarrette Blount: 2.66 seconds
Aaron Dobson: 2.19 seconds
Brandon Bolden: 2.09 seconds
Stevan Ridley: 2.79 seconds
Matthew Mulligan: 2.94 seconds
Nate Solder: 2.22 seconds
Austin Collie: 2.32 seconds
Rob Gronkowski: 2.50 seconds
Kenbrell Thompkins: 2.35 seconds
Zach Sudfeld: 2.93 seconds
Michael Hoomanawanui: 2.66 seconds